Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for May 2008

Hong Kong visitor arrivals in May 2008 reached 2,342,146, 6.3% more than in May 2007. This brings cumulative arrivals for the first five months of 2008 to 12,037,578, 9.5% ahead of the same period last year.

Almost all long and short-haul market regions recorded positive growth in May 2008. For visitor mix, the proportion of arrivals from Mainland China and those from all other market regions remained steady at 55:45, same as in 2007. Visitor arrivals from different market regions:

• North Asia: 192,586 (+13.6%)
• South & Southeast Asia: 278,138 (+9.9%)
• Taiwan: 177,028 (+7.4%)
• Mainland China: 1,290,806 (+6.4%)
• Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific: 62,216 (+4.6%)
• The Americas: 139,616 (+0.6%)
• Europe, Africa & the Middle East: 154,253 (-4.2%)

Among various individual source markets, South Korea achieved the highest growth rate at 32.6%. Arrivals from the emerging markets of India and Russia also gained 32.2% and 14.2% respectively.

As for Mainland China, 702,699 or 54.4% of the Mainland arrivals arrived under the Individual Visit Scheme, 3.6% more than in May 2007. Cumulatively, there were 3,744,702 arrivals under the Individual Visit Scheme in the first five months of 2008, 12.5% more than for the same period in 2007.

In May 2008, some 58.4% of all visitors to Hong Kong stayed in the city for at least one night, 2.3 percentage points lower than for the same month last year. The remaining 41.6% same-day in-town visitors either returned home or left for another destination on the same day as arrival.

Out of Taiwan’s total monthly arrivals, 73.5% – the highest proportion among all markets – departed Hong Kong on the same day of arrival. While such proportion remained at relatively the same level as in May 2007 (73.4%), the number of overnight visitors however increased by 7% to almost 47,000, taking up 26.5% of the island’s arrivals in May 2008.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in May 2008 was 81%, same as in May 2007. Despite the surprise in April's statistics, the geographic location with the highest occupancy returned to the normal Yau Ma Tei/ Mong Kok area, where hotels recorded occupancy rate of 84%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was HK$1,140, 3.5% higher than in May 2007.

See also: Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for April 2008 and other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Promotions, New Hotels, Hong Kong, Visitor Arrivals, May 2008